Saint Charlie

Neither is extremely unpopular.

1. How did they get to be in charge of a semi successful football team in the biggest league in the world despite none being especially qualified? 2. If the Finances were poor, then why did Rogers as the Chief Financial Officer who allowed that situation to develop end up being promoted to CEO? 3. What has happened to Krueger and why was he allowed to do national media interviews despite knowing nothing about football, culminating with him bumbling on about leadership models, Southampton Saints and wondering what the "football gods" had in store for Luke Shaw? 4. What is Krueger actually doing for us day to day? 5. If Hofsetter still at the club? Has he publically said anything apart from express that his now CEO Rogers had allowed a "difficult financial situation" to develop? 6. How is the commercial growth going? Krueger had identified North America as a major commercial target yet while lots of other PL team are out there his pre season we are not, and must be one of the only sides not to make a commercial trip this summer.

Lovren's departure to be announced tonight or tomorrow, taking it to 4 plus Poch.

Board couldn't plan anything. That has been proven this summer.

Only announcements tomorrow Viking will be the sales of Lovren and Chambers...possibly something advertising Hospitality for the Leverkusen game.

Anyone remember that first Reed video where he said there were no offers and he was suprised how few enquiries we had received about our players? Reckon he is suprised now? Wonder if he has also realised that the clubs were just dealing direct with our players, and in the case of Utd and Liverpool, telling the media about the deals before they even told Saints? Hard to pin any blame on him for plauers wanting to persue better opportunities but there is a huge feeling that the club have been very naive and reactive this summer.

They would be correct. But his job is hard even if he clearly has a ready made and valid excuse for failure. Hopefully he will never need to use it.

I think some on here did, yes.

We can forget about any hopes of signing De Vrij. Apparently he has agreed a deal with Lazio but also has Man Utd and Dortmund after him.

First XI is handy, albeit with a very shaky defence. Beyond that (literally) we have some players that are maybe ok in the Championship.

Much more difficult because with England it is the same for other national sides. Here we are disadvantaged because other sides have had more stable preparation time and far less summer turmoil. I can't think of another PL Manager with as tough a job. Certainly if you discount the promoted sides, but even then Im not sure as they have no great pressure. Sure he will cope but its tough and he himself will need to adapt to English football.

Pretty fair summary. Lovren and Chambers moves set to be completed tomorrow according to Simon Peach. How many of these days are still to follow? Utterly dismal summer for Saints. Koeman has the toughest PL job next season.

Interesting points and our second 10 games are harder on paper than the first so if we are bottom 3 after the first 10 then I would be extremely worried.

I've seen a few here (not you) say we now have a "better" Manager.

Its so bizarre. Same thing has happened with Pochettino, who was class for us. We were one of a handful of teams with an obvious style last season. People say we have replaced Poch with a better Manager but thats certainly opinion not fact.

So we can sign them? Saganowski plays for Legia Warsaw who won the Polish league the last two seasons and are a decent side. Tough game.

Celtic play their qualifier against Legia Warsaw on Weds 30th July and Weds 6th Aug so unlikely we will get either Forster or Van Dijk until after that. Hopefully they lose...

Agree we looked good at times. Used the width well especially with Clyne and Tadicnon the right. Final ball the main issue and lack of runs made behind the defence.

We have only sold 3 so far. In fact, you haven't even mentioned the fact we will end up having sold at least 5 of our best players from last season. By all means post some positive stuff but get the facts right and don't ignore that quite obvious flaw to the whole summer if you want people to take it seriously. Agree on some of the other points ie Academy etc but they arent really relevant to the window being good or bad.

You know exactly what you are doing. I like the bit where it says we have made nearly 100m for the sale of 3 players. What sums are they? 45m for Shaw, 45m for Lallana and 4m for Lambert? In actual fact is is probably 60 million which isn't really "nearly 100m". Last summer window was infinitely better than this one has been so far so will need quite a dramatic shift. At this point its far more likely to be the worst window since they were introduced than it is the best. Opinions I guess.

Exactly. My point is you could give Swindon Town 50m and they couldnt sign anyone for more than about 3m because the players worth more than that wouldnt want to play for them. We arent in the 20m plus market but the one just beneath that, same as the midtable sector of the PL.

This is as much a WUM post as a negative one IMO. Same answer everyone gives to the negative people - lets judge in September.

Out of interest which 20m players do you think we should go for? Typically they already play for teams playing in Europe or will only move to ones that are or normally are (ie Lallana, Shaw). A 20m signing would usually be in line for wages of 80k a week plus which isn't really our market. This isnt a dig at Saints but we are operating in the market down from that, the 10-15m signings are probably the max for us, unless we hugely overpay for someone. Should still be able to get plenty of good players though!

The race has been called off because Richards pulled his hamsting at the start line. Good player but never fit and a huge risk for the kind of cash he would want. We would only sign him to play CB and most of his best work has been done at RB. He will go to a higher profile club I reckon.

Typical Express. Rehash of all the links and they can't even spell the name of a World Cup star correctly. De Vrig? LOL. Just watched some highlights of the Brentford v Nice game that Erwin Koeman was at yesterday and Kolo looked at fauly for a goal and nearly cocked up for another. Interesting though that the Nice team graphic had him playing as a CB in a back 3 so possibly he could also replace Hooiveld as a left sided centre back, if we do end up going for him. Also the reason WH pulled out was due to crazy agents fees so I wonder what our position is on that.